Elders John and Susan take on the roles of surrogate parents, cooking and caring for their younger siblings without any fuss, while there is always a friendly farmer’s wife to lend a pint of milk or a kindly charcoal smoker (Jack Woolgar) to offer fishing tips or entertain with his pet snake.
This is a world where children are given the freedom to learn through play – a world that nurtures them without talking down to them. Lovingly photographed by Denis Lewiston, this is an engaging if sometimes pedestrian, adaptation of the Arthur Ransome children’s novel. The children engage in friendly warfare, while calamitous events bring them into conflict with the girls’ grumpy, river-barge-owning Uncle Jim (Ronald Fraser). Here they discover rival seafarers, Nancy (Kit Seymour) and Peggy (Lesley Bennett), known as “the Amazons” (“They’re girls!” gasps a perplexed Roger) have already staked claim to the island. Dubbing themselves “the Swallows”, John (Simon West), Susan (Suzanna Hamilton), the unfortunately nicknamed but utterly adorable Titty (Sophie Neville) and young Roger (Stephen Grendon) command their swift sailboat for adventure and intrigue on “the high seas”, and eventually set up camp on Wildcat Island. Four mischievous youngsters go boating while on holiday in the Lake District.
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